It appears some residents of Bruce Township will be fighting an uphill battle against the Enbridge Energy Company in the coming weeks.

Over 20 residents came to the Bruce Township hall for an informal meeting with Supervisor Richard Cory on March 20 to discuss how they should proceed with trying to save dozens of trees along 36 Mile Road.

Enbridge has been replacing 285 miles of pipeline, referred to by the company as pipe 6b, which spans from Griffith, Ind. to Port Huron. The pipe delivers oil across the state across the border for use in Ontario, Canada.

The pipeline, installed in the late 1960s, was approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission on Jan. 31, 2013 for a complete overhaul. New pipe will be laid adjacent to current pipes currently in use. The old pipe will be “deactivated,” purged, cleaned, capped and filled with nitrogen, and monitored by Enbridge.

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At a March 2013 Bruce Township meeting the company received approval for the purchase of land to go along with an easement already in place. Enbridge paid $38,425 for the purchase of easement rights for property near the intersection of 36 Mile and Hipp roads as their “base” for equipment and other tools.

Work has been ongoing in the project, but as the company is set to dig trenches and install new pipe along a three-mile stretch of 36 Mile Road, a new problem has arisen.

Macomb County Road Commissioner Bob Hoepfner said he had been approached by Enbridge to let him know that work being done on adjacent property along the Ford Motor Company test track would affect trees located within a Macomb County right-of-way.

Digging a 10-foot-wide, 10-foot-deep trench to install a new pipe would adversely affect the root systems of trees in the right-of-way and the excavation would almost ensure that they would die as a result.

Residents at the March 20 meeting estimated work being done could damage as many as 80 trees they estimate to be 60 feet or taller, while Hoepfner said he was given a number of “between 50 to 70” trees.

Hoepfner said Enbridge was more than within its rights to do the work on that designated portion of land and offered the county a “two for one” deal to replace all trees that would be removed immediately rather than do their work and see the trees die later.

“They showed us what needed to be done and we agreed with them,” said Hoepfner. “It was a generous offer. Cutting the roots would kill them and the right thing to do is to have them removed.”

But Hoepfner said the company must also get the proposal “signed off on” by Bruce Township.

The residents that came out for the meeting are not ready to sign off on anything yet.

“None of us will ever live long enough to ever see those trees provide enough shade over the road like it has now,” said one resident of the proposal to replace the mature trees with new ones after completion of the project.

Cory later asked if residents wanted to fight to have the trees remain intact; the overwhelming response in unison was “we want the trees to stay.”

What the township will base its fight on is a letter Cory read aloud at the meeting from attorney Benjamin Aloia to Enbridge representative Mike Ashton.

Cory said the letter, dated March 10, 2014, was apparently in response to a proposal from Enbridge to remove the trees.

“The Road Commission did not approve or authorize any work whatsoever within the Road Commission’s 36 Mile Road statutory 66-foot full-width right-of-way under this permit,” Cory read to the residents. “The removal of trees was not expressly permitted by the Road Commission with the three-mile stretch of 36 Mile Road in question.”

Cory then read the statement on which residents will pin their hopes.

“The Road Commission disagrees that Enbridge has the right to remove trees with the Road Commission’s 36 Mile Road right-of-way, even if Enbridge has written permission from Ford to remove trees from Ford property.”

Hoepfner said he has not heard of the letter, but verified that the company “does not have blanket permission to take out trees” on county property as of yet.

He admitted that the company is free to continue the work it is doing on Ford property and if the excavation goes forward as planned, the root systems of all trees on county property will be adversely affected.

Even with the inevitable collateral damage that is on the horizon, should Enbridge proceed, Cory said he will continue to fight for the trees along 36 Mile.

“If we are going to say the trees stay, I’ll just say we are going back to the letter,” he told the group.

A meeting with Enbridge has not been announced to discuss the problem and no one from the company was on hand at the March 20 meeting.